One of the things that I have been thinking a lot about lately is peoples' shortsightedness. The job that I was working until last week was paramount to the thoughts. Here was a job that had a definite and set amount of work to be done and it was over -- the faster we worked, the shorter the job would last. The more thoroughly we did our work, the longer the project would last. But people raced through the work, and when time came to analyze what we had just gotten accomplished too quickly (the reason the firm I worked for having been granted the contract), they would sit on their hands and not offer any insight. I couldn't help but be befuddled...here I was working with people that neither wanted to do their job well (evidenced by their not offering the input they were being asked for) nor did they want to preserve their employment (evidenced by their racing through the work). I don't get it.
I am reminded of the dog that my parents used to have. When his bowl was filled with food, he would wolf it down almost immediately. There was no recognition of the fact that if he did not eat it all as quickly as possible, it would still be there. There was no understanding of the fact that if he ate more slowly, and only when he needed to eat, that he could spread out his eating and eat more often than the once or twice a day that he was actually fed.
There was, in effect, no realization that the future was affected by his current doings. There was no abilty to thinking temporally. Everything was now and in the now. The future -- unknown and not worried about. There were no consequences to their actions. There is no ability to see what will come and what will be needed once there. And that is also something that I do not understand.
Eat, drink, and be merry is not a life philosophy that will lead you to a long and prosperous life. It may be fun, and it may provide a maximum value to life in the present, but in the long term it is not. When an engine runs at full power it runs out of gas more quickly, the star that burns most brightly goes supernova exponentially more quickly. Plans must be made for the future, or the future will be grim indeed. There'll be no food in the bowl and no job to put more food in the bowl.
I am reminded of the dog that my parents used to have. When his bowl was filled with food, he would wolf it down almost immediately. There was no recognition of the fact that if he did not eat it all as quickly as possible, it would still be there. There was no understanding of the fact that if he ate more slowly, and only when he needed to eat, that he could spread out his eating and eat more often than the once or twice a day that he was actually fed.
There was, in effect, no realization that the future was affected by his current doings. There was no abilty to thinking temporally. Everything was now and in the now. The future -- unknown and not worried about. There were no consequences to their actions. There is no ability to see what will come and what will be needed once there. And that is also something that I do not understand.
Eat, drink, and be merry is not a life philosophy that will lead you to a long and prosperous life. It may be fun, and it may provide a maximum value to life in the present, but in the long term it is not. When an engine runs at full power it runs out of gas more quickly, the star that burns most brightly goes supernova exponentially more quickly. Plans must be made for the future, or the future will be grim indeed. There'll be no food in the bowl and no job to put more food in the bowl.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home